Editorial: U.S. should continue funding Great Lakes Restoration Initiative

If President Trump gets his wish, funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative will dry up completely in 2018.

That disturbing news came to light on May 23 when Trump released his proposed fiscal year 2018 budget, which maintained his previous plan to zero out federal funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. The initiative was started in 2010 to “accelerate efforts to protect and restore the largest system of fresh surface water in the world — to provide additional resources to make progress toward the most critical long-term goals for this important ecosystem,” an action plan for the project states.

The program has received about $300 million per year on average.

Because we understand and appreciate what the Great Lakes mean to our entire region, we oppose the plan to eliminate Great Lakes Restoration Initiative funding.

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Since its inception nearly eight years ago, the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative has yielded significant results. More than $2 billion has been spent to remove toxic wastes from industrial harbors, fight invasive species such as Asian carp, restore wildlife habitat and support efforts to prevent harmful algal blooms.

The foundation for the GLRI began with former President George W. Bush, who created a Great Lakes task force, according to the same PBS NewsHour story, while the funding initiative continues to receive bipartisan support from U.S. lawmakers representing Great Lakes states.

We certainly commend the resolve of Ohio’s U.S. senators to fight Trump’s proposal and ensure that the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative continues.

“This bipartisan program helps protect our environment and strengthen Ohio’s economy,” Republican Sen. Rob Portman said in a News-Herald story. “We won the fight to restore full funding for GLRI for this fiscal year, and I will continue to help lead the effort in the Senate to do so again next year — just like I did when President Obama proposed cutting the program.”

Democrat Sherrod Brown said, “Taking a blowtorch to the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative could cost Ohio jobs that rely on the Lake, and jeopardize public health by putting our drinking water at risk.

“Those of us along the Great Lakes will not stand for a budget that eliminates the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative,” Brown added.

While Brown referred specifically to Ohio jobs that depend on Lake Erie, the economic impact of the Great Lakes in their entirety is also prodigious.

More than 1.5 million U.S. jobs are directly connected to the Great Lakes, generating $62 billion in wages annually, according to a 2011 study by the Michigan Sea Grant program at the University of Michigan.

The study, based on 2009 employment data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, looked at the number of jobs connected to the Great Lakes by state and by industry.

According to the report, Michigan had the highest number of jobs that depend on the lakes (525,886), followed by Illinois (380,786), Ohio (178,621), Wisconsin (173,969), New York (157,547), Indiana (54,397), Pennsylvania (25,479) and Minnesota (11,877).

Perhaps Ohio and other Great Lakes states can stay optimistic because Trump’s proposed 2018 budget is far from a done deal.

Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyoming, who is the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said the president’s budget is a suggestion and noted that “Congress is mandated by the Constitution with key spending responsibilities and will ultimately decide what the nation’s fiscal priorities will be.”

We believe that the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative has helped in making great environmental and economic strides throughout our region. We urge all legislators from Great Lakes states to fight hard so this program stays fully funded.